How you can help at home: Make a homemade book with your child and build his reading and writing skills.

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Create a literary masterpiece with your child. Children who love books will be even more excited about making a book that you can create together. The process of crafting homemade books can be a cherished experience for parent and child for many years to come.

What You'll Need:

Unlined, colorful, 5" X 8" index cards

One yard of colorful fabric ribbon at least two to three inches wide

Tacky glue

Here's How to Do It

Encourage your child to draw or write her story on the index cards, and make a cover page with the title and author of the story.

Stretch the ribbon out on top of a table, and line the cards up horizontally across it, one inch apart, in the order of the story. There should be extra ribbon at both ends. Glue the cover page about six inches from the top of the ribbon. Then continue gluing each consecutive page about one inch from the page above it. Do this until you have all the pages placed on the ribbon. When the glue is dry, fold up the squares starting with the cover page, accordion style, and then gather the ribbon at both ends. The ribbon can be tied in a bow to make a beautiful book!

Jennifer Thompson is a reading specialist for the Manassas City Public Schools in Virginia. She was recently awarded the Washington Post's Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award. Jennifer has 18 years of teaching experience, a master's degree in curriculum and instruction, and a K-12 reading specialist license.

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